Chapter 150: Signs of a Great War
Having accomplished his goal, Ethan shook the small bottle in his hand. He returned to Hagrid's side and continued listening to the conversation with Aragog.
After they finished catching up, Hagrid mentioned that he had run into Bane on the way here.
"Aragog, I met some centaurs on the way here. Bane says you're occupying too much territory. If you keep expanding, the centaurs will team up with the other creatures in the Forbidden Forest and wage war against you."
"Don't worry about that. That's our concern." Aragog's tone grew fierce, and his two large pincers clicked together.
"Aragog, I know you have many descendants. You need to survive. But the Forbidden Forest belongs to all the creatures living here. If a conflict really breaks out, who knows how many of your descendants will lose their lives."
"That is their fate. They give their lives for the survival of the colony. It is their honor."
Hagrid ran a hand through his messy hair. "No, Aragog..."
"That is enough. You must leave, Hagrid."
"We creatures of the Forbidden Forest have our own ways. It is not your place to interfere." Aragog had no desire to discuss the matter further with Hagrid. He moved slowly back toward his web.
Watching Aragog disappear into his web, Hagrid was at a loss for words.
Finally, he picked up the lantern from the ground and grabbed Fang's leash. Fang was curled up in a ball among a cluster of spiders. He called out to Ethan.
"Let's go." His voice sounded hollow, stripped of the cheer he'd had on the way here.
Ethan followed silently behind him. Under the watchful eyes of the spider colony, they slowly made their way out of the Acromantula lair.
Unknown to them, once they were far enough away that the spiders could no longer hear their footsteps, the colony burst into a heated debate.
"Why didn't we eat them? Wasn't this meat delivered right to our doorstep?" The young spiders, newly hatched and never having seen Hagrid, were the first to speak up, even without their parents' permission.
"That big human is someone your grandfather respects.
"He once promised that human would not be harmed."
"But why can't we eat that human next to him?"
"Because the big one brought him. We can't eat him in front of him."
"So if that little one enters the Forbidden Forest alone, can we eat him?"
"Of course. I only promised Hagrid I wouldn't harm other humans.
"But you need only obey my command: don't harm Hagrid or any human he brings. If fresh human flesh shows up at our door, I won't stop you from enjoying it."
Aragog's words echoed through his web, delighting all the spiders, their pincers clicking.
"You must stay alert. The centaurs are unhappy that we occupy large areas of the Forbidden Forest, and they plan to unite with other creatures to attack us. No matter who you are, if you see any signs, report to me immediately."
Although Aragog was blind and his descendants provided his food, he remained the center of the entire colony. As the eldest spider and the source of the colony's bloodline, he was the heart of the clan.
"Yes, Father!"
"Yes, Grandfather!"
After responding, the spiders scattered and went their separate ways.
"Aragog has changed. He isn't the little spider I raised in a cupboard fifty years ago." Hagrid felt a bit sad about Aragog's transformation.
He'd lived fifty years. How could he be the same? As the patriarch of the Acromantula clan in the Forbidden Forest, how could he still be that little spider eating breadcrumbs in the cupboard?
Hagrid understood that, but he still grieved over Aragog's recent behavior.
He'd hoped the creatures of the Forbidden Forest could live in harmony, but Aragog's actions today had shattered that dream.
"Let's hope there aren't too many casualties on either side," Hagrid sighed.
Although Hagrid was nominally the gamekeeper for the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, its creatures were too numerous and wild. Even Dumbledore, as headmaster, held no authority over them, let alone Hagrid.
Hagrid fell silent.
Suddenly, Hagrid heard something and instantly became alert.
"Something's coming. Be careful."
Clop-clop-clop!
Rapid hoofbeats drew closer.
"Bane? Ronan? Firenze?" Hagrid relaxed slightly, calling out the centaurs' names one by one.
But the approaching figure wasn't a centaur. It was a silvery-white shape.
It turned its head, glancing at the pair, then bolted away.
"Is that a unicorn?" Ethan asked. Though he had seen unicorn blood and used their horns in potions many times, he had never seen a live unicorn.
"Truly a beautiful creature," Ethan said. It was a pity the unicorn ran so fast; he hadn't had time to admire it properly.
"I'll wait until next time," Ethan said. "I can also see if my charm attracts them, even though legends say they prefer witches over wizards."
Ethan usually kept his special charm suppressed to avoid attracting things that shouldn't be drawn to it, like that old hag in Diagon Alley.
"Unicorns generally don't roam at night. What's wrong with it?" Hagrid looked in the direction the unicorn had gone, scratching his head in puzzlement.
"Over there," Ethan said. He glanced around and spotted the source. From the direction the unicorn had come, several massive, familiar shapes were crawling toward them.
"Aragog's kin? They're hunting unicorns?" Hagrid caught sight of the Acromantulas and gasped in disbelief.
"We meet again, humans," several spiders hissed, eyeing Ethan and Hagrid with predatory hunger before pursuing the unicorn.
Hagrid raised his hand but said nothing, watching helplessly as the spiders departed.
"Let's go," Ethan sighed.
Hagrid fell silent, knowing that the war for the Forbidden Forest was inevitable.
They trudged out of the forest, heads hanging low. Near the clearing where they had met Bane, they saw more centaurs.
"Hagrid, what did Aragog say?" asked Bane, who stood at the front.
"He said he wouldn't let me intervene." Hagrid shook his head dejectedly.
"Stay out of the Forbidden Forest for now. We could come to blows any day, and we wouldn't have time to protect you then." Bane understood immediately; Hagrid's mediation had failed.
Hagrid nodded his shaggy head and led Ethan away without a word.
After the two had left, Bane said to the red-bearded centaur beside him, "Let us go as well. We must return and discuss which creatures to rally for a strike against the Acromantulas."
Clop-clop. After a burst of hoofbeats thundered across the ground, the centaurs disappeared into the dense forest.
"You should head back. It's getting late. Curfew's soon. Don't get caught and locked up." Hagrid went back into the hut, picked up the wine bottle again, and took two long swallows.
"There's nothing you can do about this. Even Dumbledore wouldn't have a solution. Take it easy on that drink. I'm leaving." Ethan offered a few parting words and left the hut.
*There's no telling when this great war will start.* On his way back to the castle, he kept thinking.
To Hagrid, who had lived on the edge of the Forbidden Forest for fifty years, the creatures within were familiar friends.
But to Ethan, they were simply strange magical creatures.
What occupied Ethan's thoughts most was how to gain the greatest advantage when this war finally erupted.
The Acromantulas were bold enough to kill unicorns. It seemed there was nothing on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest that they wouldn't hunt. No wonder the centaurs were so agitated. Ethan shook his head and walked into the Entrance Hall.
Over the following days, Ethan hurried to the edge of the Forbidden Forest after lunch. Once he was sure he was alone, he took to the sky, unseen, to observe the Acromantulas, the likely targets of an imminent attack.
Ethan chose to observe during the day because spiders preferred darkness and dampness, and were mostly active at night. He figured the centaurs would launch their assault during the day to catch the spiders while they were sluggish, rather than at night when the colony was fully awake.
However, Ethan wasn't certain the spiders would go down without a fight, so he also slipped out of the castle before curfew to keep watch.
This was the final week before the holidays. They'd been told that a pre-Christmas dinner would be held in the Great Hall this Sunday. By Monday, everyone would be heading home.
After the final Potions class of the semester, Ethan returned to the Forbidden Forest under the cover of darkness, but he still found no signs of a battle.
The weather had been awful recently. A blizzard had set in. He wasn't sure if that was the reason both sides had delayed the fight.
*A pity. I hope they can put up a fight after the Christmas holidays.*
Ethan didn't return to the dormitory that night. He stayed in the Room of Requirement to copy the final section of *Secrets of the Darkest Art*.
Experience suggested the copy would likely disappear by morning, so he had to push through the night to finish transcribing it.
It was past two in the morning when he finally finished copying the tome.
He yawned, packed the copied parchment and the book into his bag, opened the door, and stepped out into the corridor.
He needed a room to rest. He concentrated on the thought, pacing back and forth in front of the blank wall three times.
A door materialized in the stone wall. He grabbed the handle and pushed it open. A warm, cozy bedroom appeared before him.
Exhausted, Ethan could only think about the large, inviting bed. He stripped and collapsed onto the mattress.
"So comfortable!"
After waking up, Ethan crawled out from under the quilt and stretched. He finally had a moment to look around and carefully examine the bedroom, which was clearly designed in the Ravenclaw style.
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Ethan dried his face with a blue-and-white-striped towel. "I heard a legend once that the Room of Requirement is a secret chamber left by Ravenclaw. Judging by the meeting room we saw last time and this bedroom, it might be true."
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